Week 6: Congress

POLSCI 116

Last week

Civil liberties and civil rights

A few last words

Article VI, Section 4. Qualification for registration. Every person presenting himself for registration shall be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language.

At the time, carve-out for anyone eligible to vote or descended from someone eligible to vote before January 1, 1867 (“grandfather clause”).

The Right to Vote?

Fayetteville Observer, 1899

The Right to Vote?

When do you think North Carolina’s literacy test became unenforceable?

When did the US become a “democracy”?

The Right to Vote?

White-only Democratic primary elections in South ruled unconstitutional in 1944.

Understanding clauses outlawed in 1965

Keele, Luke, William Cubbison, and Ismail White. 2021. “Suppressing Black Votes: A Historical Case Study of Voting Restrictions in Louisiana.” American Political Science Review 115(2): 694–700.

The Right to Vote?

The right to vote is, generously, unenumerated.

The Constitution specifies who you can’t keep from voting, but it doesn’t say everyone can vote.

Why is this distinction important?

The Right to Vote?

The Right to Vote?

Reading assignment answers

Why does Sweat v. Painter matter?

Set an important precedent that the “equal” in “separate but equal” needed to be taken seriously.

Reading assignment answers

One cause of racial realignment?

New Deal, Great Migration to the North, 1948 convention/election + Dixiecrat revolt, civil rights coalition, Civil Rights Acts/Voting Rights Act (you’ll read about this in more depth during interest groups week)

Reading assignment answers

What’s “preclearance”?

States regulated under Voting Rights Act of 1965 needed approval from DOJ to change election administration procedures.

Reading assignment answers

Women’s suffrage delivered “under partisan duress”?

Women organized for the right to vote in many states first, giving the movement added leverage to build political coalitions in support of the constitutional amendment.

Reading assignment answers

What do Corder and Wolbrecht mean in arguing that suffrage is a necessary but insufficient condition for government founded on the consent of the governed?

Voting rights are what you make them. Deeper forms of political participation inform how other actors in the political system – such as political parties and politicians – adapt to appeal to women as political constituencies.

Ok, let’s start on institutions

Congress

Ok, let’s start on institutions

Interesting time to be doing intro to Congress…

Ok, let’s start on institutions

Foran, Clare, Manu Raju, Annie Grayer, and Melanie Zanona. “McCarthy elected House speaker after days of painstaking negotiations and failed votes.” CNN, January 7, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/politics/mccarthy-speaker-fight-friday/index.html

Key lesson here

Having a partisan majority is not the same thing as having a procedural majority.

Structure of Congress

Shout out some structural features of U.S. Congress:

  • Bicameral
    • 435 House members (plus non-voting representatives from DC/territories); 100 senators
    • House apportioned by population, Senate gets 2 per state
    • Two-year House terms; 6-year Senate terms

Structure of Congress

  • Elections:
    • Single-member
    • Plurality / first-past-the-post
    • Geographic districts
      • House districts drawn by state legislatures

Institutional features structure members’ behavior as representatives.

Structure of Congress

  • Eligibility:
    • Legal resident of the state
      • In-district residence for House a strong norm but not a rule
    • Minimum age: 25 (House), 30 (Senate)
    • U.S. citizen for at least seven (House) or nine (Senate) years

Vision of Congress

Congress as the “first branch”

  • “refine and enlarge the debate” to balance common good with local interests
  • Senate as the more public-interested, “cooler”/less passionate deliberative body
    • Why?
      • Until 1917, not directly elected
      • Still: larger/more diverse constituencies and less frequent elections

Federalist 57

“The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust. The elective mode of obtaining rulers is the characteristic policy of republican government.”

Sounds like Locke, no?

Powers of Congress

Shout out some powers of U.S. Congress:

  • Make laws
  • Raise and spend money
    • Revenue bills originate in House
  • Declare war (formally)
  • Approve treaties (Senate)
  • Establish army/navy
  • Establish lower courts
  • Print money
  • Regulate interstate commerce
  • Manage the mail
  • Manage intellectual property/patents
  • Set rules for immigration/naturalization

Checks of Congress

Shout out some checks Congress has on the other branches:

  • Override presidential veto (2/3 majority)
  • Conduct oversight
  • Advice and consent on executive appointments (Senate)
  • Initiate/pass articles of impeachment (House)
  • Hold impeachment trial (Senate)
  • Initiate constitutional amendments

Guiding Principle of Congress

Mayhew: in expectation, members are “single-minded seekers of reelection”


What does that mean?


Pros and cons?

Guiding Principle of Congress

Members boost their re-election chances through:

  • Credit-claiming
  • Position-taking
  • Advertising

Credit Claiming

What can members claim credit for?

  • Usually good outcomes specific to the district
    • Plausibly tied directly to the member
    • Encourages House members to specialize
  • Casework / constituent services

Position Taking

What counts as position taking?

  • Public statements
  • Roll call votes
  • Bill co-sponsorship

Key features are a) publicity; and b) policy stance

Advertising

What counts as advertising? In capacity as representative, this is different from 30-second TV spots.

  • Public events
  • Meeting with constituents
  • Sending birthday cards, etc.

Key features are a) publicity and b) non-policy content

Cheap Talk?

  • Cosponsorship doesn’t guarantee a yes vote when it matters
  • No rule against claiming credit for something you voted against

Varying Incentives

Members of Congress will tailor their “home style” based on their incentives.

More competitive election, less emphasis on contentious national issues.

Grimmer, Justin. 2013. “Appropriators not Position Takers: The Distorting Effects of Electoral Incentives on Congressional Representation.” American Journal of Political Science 57(3): 624-642.

Overlapping Constituencies

To whom are members of Congress accountable?

Fenno (1978): concentric circles of representation

Fenno’s Paradox

People tend to dislike Congress but like their own member (is this really a paradox?).

Opinions toward both tend to move together.

Enten, Harry. “Disliking Congress, as a Whole And as Individuals.” FiveThirtyEight, July 1 2014. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/disliking-congress-as-a-whole-and-as-individuals/

Incumbency

Incumbents play re-election on easy mode. What are some of their advantages?

  • Increased name recognition
    • Actions inherently newsworthy
  • Pragmatists donate to winners
  • Credit to claim
  • Constituent service
  • Professionalized campaigning
  • Redistricting
  • “Franking” privilege

Incumbency

When incumbents run for re-election, they tend to win.

Members may retire when re-election looks unlikely.

Wither Incumbency?

But the advantage attributable to incumbency is shrinking. Why?

  • Partisanship stronger
    • Out-partisans less willing to give credit
    • “Safe” seats vulnerable in primaries
    • Incumbents better sorted by party

Rogers, Steven. 2023. “The Vanishing Incumbency Advantage in State House Elections.” The Forum 21(1)

Congressional Representation

Different theories of how representation should work:

  • Delegate: representative should be an agent of the represented
  • Trustee: representative should use their best judgment
    • Politico: both, varying by issue
  • Gyroscopic: representative should be in regular consultation with the represented

Pros and cons? When do we want which?

Inputs to Congressional Behavior

  • Parties?
  • Interest groups?
  • Public opinion?

Congressional Representation

Different types of representation:

  • Descriptive: demographic correspondence
    • Surrogate: group interests that span constituencies
  • Substantive: policy correspondence

Demographics of Congress

Current (118th) Congress: more diverse than ever, but that’s a low bar to clear

Demographics of Congress

Current (118th) Congress: more diverse than ever, but that’s a low bar to clear

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Congressional Representation

Congressional representation takes place on multiple levels:

  • Chamber: partisan balance
  • District: geographic area, “communities of interest”
  • Group: organized interest/demographic groups
  • Individual: dyadic relationship between citizen and representative

Congressional Representation: Valerie Foushee (D-NC)

Duke University as Community of Interest

What are some of Duke’s interests?

  • Housing policy
  • Transportation policy
  • Infrastructure spending
  • Research funding
  • Economic development in Durham

https://governmentrelations.duke.edu/

Congressional Representation

The House is small.

Congressional Representation

The House is supposed to be bigger (Federalist 58)

Data from electproject.org

Consequences of a small House?

Redistricting

Or, gerrymandering.

Redistricting

The authority to draw district lines is formally left to the states.

This typically means states legislatures draw the lines, typically after the decennial Census

Redistricting

Rules (everyone):

  • Equal population
  • Voting Rights Act: no diluting minority representation

Rules (some/most states)

  • Compactness
  • Contiguity
  • Communities of interest

Norms:

  • Incumbent protection (or lack thereof)
  • Partisan fairness (or lack thereof)

“Cracking” and “Packing”

Princeton Gerrymandering Project

Common Gerrymanders

Partisan:

Smith, Jamil. “Ohio gerrymandering costs Congress a liberal.” NBC News, March 7, 2012.

Racial:

Scales, Liliana. “Why Chicago’s 4th Congressional District — those ‘earmuffs’ — are about fairness and not gerrymandering.” Chicago Sun-Times, March 11, 2020.

Gerrymandering Metrics

There are a ton of metrics out there. Here are a few:

  • Seats-votes curve: rate of seat change as votes change
  • Responsiveness: slope of seats-votes curve at map-wide vote share
  • Bias: difference in outcomes at 50/50 vote share
  • Efficiency gap: difference in “wasted” votes for each party?

Ansolabehere, Stephen, and William Leblanc. 2008. “A spatial model of the relationship between seats and votes.” Mathematical and Computer Modelling 48(9-10): 1409-1420.

Redistricting Tradeoffs

“Unintentional” gerrymandering as a function of geography…What do I mean by this? If one party’s voters are more spread out than the other’s, neutral lines will produce unequal outcomes.

Aggressive redistricting can backfire…Thoughts on why? Maps decay; uniform swing can create a wave.

Competitive districts “waste” votes…Thoughts on why? “Leapfrog” representation.

  • How does district competition tie in to theories/levels of representation?

Break

Reading assignment answers

Decline in incumbency advantage – why?

Nationalization, polarization, party-centered electoral process

Reading assignment answers

How does Congress lower its transaction costs?

Fixed/recurring rules (such as seniority for committee assignments), precedent (norms)

Reading assignment answers

“Multiple referrals”?

When different committees have overlapping jurisdictions that cover the same bill, so they both consider it

Reading assignment answers

“Unorthodox lawmaking”?

Designing special, one-off rules and procedures to navigate around veto points for specific pieces of legislation

Reading assignment answers

Why does Congress have less party discipline than UK Parliament?

  • British nominating system is closed (local elites choose instead of open primary elections)
  • U.S. candidates use more of their own resources independent from the party’s to get elected
  • in the UK party loyalty is essential to move up the ranks and into the executive
    • Prime Minister and cabinet emerge from Parliament

Reading assignment answers

Why worry about winning “comfortably”?

Winning narrowly is a sign of weakness that could trigger additional resources being deployed against them in the next election

Reading assignment answers

Why Skelly/Shah think we’ve seen more descriptive representation other than majority-minority districts?

Partisanship. Getting nominated raises the floor.

Well then.

Well then.

Who is currently Speaker of the House?

Our standard political knowledge question just became a trick question.

Well then.

Should House Democrats have abstained to save McCarthy?

From Democrats’ perspective…

Yes:

  • next Speaker likely more conservative
    • By DW-NOMINATE…
      • McCarthy: 0.458 (42nd percentile R)
      • McHenry: 0.53 (55th percentile R)
      • Scalise: 0.556 (61st percentile R)
      • Jordan: 0.717 (91st percentile R)
  • could hopefully get concessions in exchange
  • above the fray (?)

No:

  • traditional to vote against
  • McCarthy rejected premise of deal
    • long-term political risk
  • bad blood with McCarthy
    • reneged on debt-ceiling deal
    • recent shutdown blame
    • impeachment inquiry
  • embarrassing for Republicans

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Lots of veto points!

Committees (which ones have jurisdiction, who sits on them) extremely important.

Types of Legislation

  • Bill: becomes law if passed by both chambers and signed by president
    • Affordable Care Act, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, e.g.
  • Simple resolution: symbolic, formal expressions from one chamber, not signed by president
    • Congratulating the Super Bowl winner
  • Concurrent resolution: same as above but both chambers
  • Joint resolution: like a bill, unless it’s a constitutional amendment

Orthodox Lawmaking

Proposal –> presiding officer (Speaker or President Pro-Tempore) –> Committee*^ –> Subcommittee*^ –> Committee –> Rules Committee*^ (if House) –> Chamber floor*^ –> other chamber floor*^ –> Conference Committee*^ –> Final Passage^ –> President^

if veto…

New floor votes^ (need 2/3 majority to pass)

*: Bill can be amended

^: Bill can die

Unorthodox Lawmaking

Members can navigate gridlock via “unorthodox” procedures you didn’t learn about in eighth grade civics.

Multiple pathways for a given piece of legislation to become law. Rules and procedure matter!

  • Major bills may bypass committee system via discharge petition (rare) or special rules (common, in House)
    • Patriot Act, Affordable Care Act, e.g.

Centralization of agenda-setting power, special rules, adaptation of policy to fit procedure.

Leadership Roles in Congress

House:

  • Speaker
  • Majority/minority leader
  • Majority/minority whip
  • Conference/caucus chair
  • Policy committee chair (Republican)
  • Assistant leader (Democratic)
  • Committee chair/ranking member
  • Campaign committee chair

Senate:

  • Vice President/President Pro-Tempore
  • Majority/minority leader
  • Majority/minority whip
  • Conference secretary/chair
  • Policy committee chair
  • Committee chair/ranking member
  • Campaign committee chair

Differences Between House and Senate

  • Continuity (whole House up for re-election)
  • Path to the floor
    • Rules Committee in the House
  • Debate and amendment process
    • Filibuster in the Senate
    • Open, modified-open, structured, and closed rules in the House
      • Who can offer amendments when?

The Rules Committee

Why is the Rules Committee so powerful?

(When and under what procedures) will the bill be considered by the full chamber?

Procedure is Power

Wolfensberger, Don. “Long-Serving Dingell Is a Master of House Traditions.” Roll Call, June 11 2013. https://rollcall.com/2013/06/11/long-serving-dingell-is-a-master-of-house-traditions-wolfensberger/

When Rules Matter (Always)

Congressional Budget Act of 1974:

  • Background: Nixon refusing to spend appropriated money
  • Bill systematizes budgetary and spending processes
  • Established
    • Congressional Budget Office
    • House and Senate Budget Committees
    • Formalized budget process and timeline
      • Including budget “reconciliation”

When Rules Matter (Always)

Example: Byrd Rule

  • Determines whether item is/isn’t “extraneous” to budget
  • Interpreted by Senate parliamentarian (who?)
  • Adherence to Byrd Rule is a norm

When Norms Matter (Always)

Once again, you can’t write everything down.

Impeachment, filibuster, “advice and consent”

Evolving norms around “blue slips”

Senate “folkways” and norms of collegiality

  • Even under polarization, these norms show up in surprising places

Committee Structure

The chambers organize themselves:

  • Standing committees
  • Select/special committees
  • Joint committees
  • Conference committees

Each committee further divided into subcommittees, etc.

House Committee Assignments

Seats on committees allocated by the majority party in consultation with the minority.1

Parties then select members to fill allotted seats based on their own rules/procedures.

Lists approved by full chamber.

Theories of Committees

Why does Congress organize itself into committees?

  • Distributive theory: good for members
  • Informational theory: good for chamber

Members on Committees

Importance of Committee Assignments

  • Committees develop expertise relative to chamber
  • Opportunities for specialized credit-claiming and position-taking
  • Lever of power for party leadership

Congressional Staff

  • Committee staff
    • Informational capacity
  • Member staff
    • At individual members’ discretion

Gridlock and Polarization

What do we mean when we say congressional “ideology”? Pros and cons of this measurement approach?

Source: voteview.com

Gridlock and Polarization

Polarization is relative. “Textbook” Congress in 60s-70s had abnormally low polarization. Why?

Source: voteview.com

Theories of Congressional Polarization

Less evidence:

  • social capital
  • gerrymandering
  • money in politics (general)

Theories of Congressional Polarization

Mixed evidence:

  • economic inequality
  • money in politics (dark money, small donors)
  • weakening of formal parties
  • changes in media environment

Theories of Congressional Polarization

More evidence:

  • sorting
  • nationalization
  • competition

Example: Madison Cawthorn

“I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation.”

1st term, minority party, anticipation of competitive midterm…rational?

Guiding Principle(s) of Congressional Behavior

How does single-minded seeking of re-election translate to congressional voting behavior?

Members of Congress do what they want.

Pivotal Players

Players x rules x status quo = nature of policy change

Krehbiel, Keith. 1998. Pivotal Politics: A Theory of U.S. Lawmaking. University of Chicago Press.

Let’s Try it Out

Let’s Try it Out

Let’s Try it Out

Let’s Try it Out

Let’s Try it Out

Let’s Try it Out

Some implications…

  • Passing legislation is hard
    • Harder as “gridlock interval” increases
    • Harder later in session(why?)

Logrolling and Omnibus Legislation

One way to break gridlock: trade wins

Common example: Farm Bill

  • Agricultural subsidies (Republicans)
  • Food assistance programs (Democrats)

Omnibus legislation: bundling lots of bills (major and minor) together at once

Earmarks

Another way to break gridlock: cut everyone in via “pork”

  • Earmarks involving district-specific appropriations
    • infrastructure, military bases, job programs, e.g.
    • typically small money in the grand scheme of things
  • Easy to criticize other members’ projects as wasteful
  • Norms of universalism generate broad buy-in

Let’s talk about what you read

Competition and polarization

Let’s talk about what you read

Capacity and Congress as a firm in the market for labor